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School of Music's home grown grand opera
by Carolyn Hull
What was once only an idea in the
minds of its librettists and composer is
fast becoming reality as the School of
Music produces Napoleon.
The libretto for Napoleon was
written by Dean Tschetter,
designer-in-residence, and Bill Wallis, a
Centennial College fellow and visiting
music professor. The two were excited
about the possibilities of opera but
wanted to synthesize it with all the
advantages of good drama, according
to Tschetter.
"Grand opera is a spectacle of
things to see and hear. Characters are
larger than life with music serving
many times to magnify emotions'
Tschetter said.
"Opera is the most complete media
in theatre, it combines good drama
and music, which heightens the
dramatic moments," Wallis said.
The medium seemed, to xhem, to fit
the scope of Napoleon,
a larger-than-life figure of history.
"He is simply one of the greatest
leaders in history. He rebuilt European
civilization. He personally dictated all
the aspects of his government, down
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Napoleon . . The opera is designed to show how Napoleon
could be so hated and so loved.
to where each man was on the
battlefield," Wallis said.
"While being an able general and
politician, unique circumstances
catapulted him to fame. He said
himself that he was a product of the
revolution," Tschetter said. After the
French revolution three consulates
presided over government affairs.
Napoleon was appointed one of the
three.
"After becoming first consulate, he
took over the government in a
bloodless coup and named himself
emperor. Under his rule France really
had some good years," Tschetter said.
The opera is designed to show some
of the many aspects of Napoleon to
the audience. Opening on a battlefield,
which is always present, it moves
through flashbacks including his
coronation to a premonition of his
defeat. The intent is to show how he
could be so hated and so loved by his
subjects.
Our primary concern became to
show Napoleon, the man, and how his
mind worked to cause all the different
sides to his character, Wallis said.
"We tried to give the audience many
facets of who the man was without
giving our decision. We wanted it an
open ended question that the audience
would consider," Tschetter said.
Research Wallis and Tschetter has
done brought out that even with all his
pride and arrogance, Napoleon was a
romantic person and loved by his
subjects.
"The opera's vignettes lay out the
character of Napoleon in pieces for the
audience to see. Yet even when all the
pieces are layed out, he is still a
puzzle," Tschetter said.
The setting of the opera is the
battlefield of Borodino just after the
battle has ended. According to Wallis,
they chose Borodino to show
Napoleon under stress, as Napoleon
realized that it was the turning point
of his conquests.
"His defeat in Moscow followed
Borodino and still the people
welcomed him home as if he were a
God," Wallis said.
"He was only beaten by others
using his own tactics. Wellington
defeated him by using the tactics
Napoleon had used to counter the very
attack he was making," Wallis said.
The two finished one libretto which
they were not satisfied with and went
on to revise and rewrite, finishing a
libretto they were satisfied with earlier
this year.
Next, music was needed to combine
with the libretto to bring the opera to
completion. Wallis and Tschetter
approahced Bob Beadell about asking
one of his students to compose. Bob
Beadell, School of Music Professor,
agreed to join them himself.
. "We talked about the show, and I
was impressed with the first drafts of
the libretto I saw. They can be deadly,
it can't be poetry and it can't be
drama, as they are total in themselves.
A good libretto has to be in a middle
ground to show the extra dimension of
music room, " Beadell said.
Through a grant from trie University
Research Council, Beadell has been
able to take leave to complete the
score.
Beadell said that composing for an
opera involves an intuitive sense of
what will expand the drama,
creativity, and a highly technical
training.
In composing Napoleon's music, he
said, it took around three months to
come to a concept of the total sound,
which he then writes the recitive and
songs from.
"In the early part of the opera
Napoleon's arias are strong,
declamatory; as the opera progresses
they become less angular and strident,
reflecting his growing knowledge of his
fate," Beadell said.
According to Beadell, some of the
music is almost cinematic in its sound,
moving from reality, back and forth in
time and space.
"As the scene moves from a
flashback to Borodino, the orchestra
returns to a recognizable texture,"
Beadell said.
Reminders that one is always on a
battlefield come from the music.
"In the far distance one can hear
military trumpet and drum cadences
faintly," said Beadell.
The collaborators are all involved in
the present production. Tschetter is
directing, Wallis cast as Duroc,
Napoleon's aide and close friend, and
Beadell is involved in orchestra and
rewriting.
The tremendous scope of the
production will involve more people
than ususal UNL operas. Faculty
member John Zei will sing Napoleon,
Emily McKnight, Josephine with Dale
Ganz, Ray Miller, Jeanie Dietrich, and
Wallis other faculty appearing in the
show. The Men's Glee Club and
Madrigal Singers are also in the show
along with the Opera Workshop
members.
Napoleon will premier Feb. 2 at
Kimball and run Feb. 2, 9 and 10.
Brecht's
'Circle'
audience
alienation
Review by
Leta Powell Drake
(Drake is a graduate student In speech.)
Bertold Brecht's play, The Caucasian Chalk Circle,
currently on the boards at the University Theatre, is playing to
full houses and with good reason. Directed by William
Morgan, it is a play well worth seeing. The play is set in the fall
of 1945, at the end of World War II in the mountains of
Russia. But it actually doesn't matter where or when the play
takes place at all, because the play is not what it seems. Brecht
says one thing and means another.
Brecht was noted as the originator of the "alienation"
effect-an attempt to drive a wedge between the actor and the
audience. According to Brecht's theory, this alienation would
give the audience sufficient objectivity to witness the action
on the stage without getting emotionally involved. If one is
emotionally involved in the drama, one is overcome by inertia
and unable to do anything. Unfortunately with outstanding
actors, such as Azdek the judge, the audience is lost in
compassion and the concept of epic theater breaks down.
Brecht has given us the outline of a play revolving around a
mother and child and the rights of kinship and the question of
blood being thicker than water. However, the play Is so much
more than that. The play is about war, love, justice, reason,
order, chaos and ownership. And Brecht has stereotyped
character to portray these attitudes.
The kudos for the evening must go to the judge Azdek
played by Brecht's spokesman Donovan Diez. His
administration of justice is outrageous, but his conclusions are
seemingly truly just. This lanky Jewish-looking young man
would make a brilliant Shylock some day.
Helping the audience follow and interpret the action of the
story is the poet-narrator, Mitch Tebo. There is always a
commandingly mad, almost diabolical look to this perpetual
Puck. But one watches this saturnine figure and one always
listens when he speaks.
The young lovers are shadows of live people. Too good to
be real. Grusha, played by Connie McCord, the young girl who
has stolen the child and made it her own, is a fragile, lovely,
delicate creature with a plaintive voice. One wonders if she
actually could have had the courage to brave a savage Russian
winter with the responsibility of an infant to care for. But we
are deeply moved when she makes her plea for the child in the
chalk circle and refuses to tear apart the child for personal'
gain. She loves the child too much to do him any harm.
Notables in the supporting cast include the corporal solider,
portrayed by Bill Mrkvicka, who strikes the audience as a
vulgar, cruel war monger; Steve Shelly as the quite healthy
dying husband in a very funny weddingfuneral scene;
Roxanne Perry as Natella Abashwili, the "legitimate" mother
who is too properly hateful and demanding; D. Chetley
Kincaid as Granny Grusinia, the woebegone old lady who
makes one think of a wounded whooping crane in flight.
An award of merit to the cast as a whole for their flexibility
to be constantly on stage alternating in roles. Sometimes the
cast was used as scenery, as a chorus, as a solid mass, or as a
fascinating background noise of melting snow, or as citizens,
or merely as observers. This economic move of doubling,
tripling and guadrupling roles is utilitarian and at the same
time an excellent training ground in educational theatre.
The stage setting was functional, almost stark. It consisted
of barrels, wagons,, spit and bailing wire. However, if it is not
possible for the playwright to include a real river on the stage,
or real snow, or real fire, then it certainly is impractical. Why
not use symbolism when realism is not feasible? Morgan has
done it most effectively by using brightly colored scarves,
waving wildly and catching the light, to represent fire; barrels
become walls and supporting beams for houses; rivers are
created with aqua satin fabric laid in front of the observing
eyes of the audience.
Brecht would have approved Morgan's fascinating use of
connecting bodies to represent a bridge over a glacier that had
to be crossed. Live pigs and goats in the lobby added a
poignant, if not pungent, sense of reality to the setting. Dancers
outside the theatre created a festive mood prior to the opening
lines and musicians with percussion, flute, violin and balalaika
added an additional dimension. "
The "Caucasian Chalk Circle" is not Brecht at his best,
however, Morgan's production, coupled with some outstanding
acting talent will keep theatre live and well and living in
Lincoln.
The play runs through Dec. 16.
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Wednesday, december 13, 1972
daily nebraskan
page 9
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